OK this is what happened (with any gory details removed).....
A small update, with a definite "glossing over" of the worst bits.
My friend Paul & I met up in Maasluis after landing at our respective ferry ports (Hook for me, and Rotterdam for Paul).
After some refreshment we cycled to the Erasmusbrug bridge and took a ferry (25Km) to Dordrecht.
We had lunch in Dordrecht and then travelled to our first campsite.
I had a major financial disaster at this point on this first day (I lost my wallet with all my money, cards etc. etc. as it fell out of my pocket onto the road somewhere) but with help from my family at home and some frantic calls to my bank(s) etc. a bank transfer of funds and Paul's assistance we managed to overcome things.
Paul and I learnt how to climb on top of a picnic table to get out of the rain-puddle growing under our feet.
A very nice Dutch lady saw us shivering in the cold and wet under the pergola and invited us to come and take Coffee with her and her husband and we spent about 2 hours with these charming and delightful people.
Our intended campsite in Tilburg was full when we got there towards the end of the day and we frantically called around to find another place.
We were rejected out of hand by several potential campsites for no good reason we could fathom but one lovely lady at "Camping Petit013" took us in and it turned out to be the best site of the tour.
We did manage to meet up with our Dutch friend Emiel in Hilvarenbeek for lunch on the Saturday
. Another friend (Maddox) was sadly Hors-de-combat with Covid
.
We achieved all of the goals that we set for ourselves regarding Islands, towns/villages visited and total of 287 miles (459Km) were e-assist traveled by me, and wholly manpower-pedaled by Paul.
My biggest battery (20AH) failed on our longest single trip (82Km 51.6 Miles) from Hulten to Melissant (via Ould Tonge for dinner) ) we were towing our fully loaded trailers and we limped along and arrived after dark and pitched our tents by torchlight. We were both rather exhausted I think.
We stayed here for 2 nights and then made our way back to the port area via the Krabbeplat and another campsite for 2 nights.
I arrived back at Harwich on this morning's 06:30 ferry.
As all I had was my phone and the contactless payment it offers, no cards, not even the car parking ticket to try and get a price from the car park machine at Harwich I was worried they would not let me out of the car park as I could not pay or that they would slap loads of charges on. But.....After a 2 minute call to the number on the machine I was instructed to "wait there" and in 5 mins a lovely lady popped out of nowhere and handed me a car park exit pass and said "Here's your 'get out of jail free' card" and I escaped without paying the £8.60/day charge OR the £85 lost ticket admin charge.
Success!
40 minutes later I was home with my lovely wife.
Everywhere we stayed we took the opportunity to visit as many of the local places we could.
The weather was the worst I have experienced in any of my four my trips to Holland, there were very few Sunny days and most of the time we were dodging rain showers or storms. A lot of card playing was done in our evenings while we watched the rain falling.
Verdict:
A good trip with both highs and lows, some wonderful cycling and some abysmal weather. Ha! Ha!
plain old me had old series that used to arrive about a week after that lot. They used to rip me to bits about its speed. I know Carterton well, went through Brize a fair few times. Good place.
